Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
Real side businesses, described by their owners. Filter by cost, time and how they earn.
- Ideas
- 651 ideas
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- 14 publications and shows
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- Files sold online: templates, printables, ebooks, stock photos, fonts, presets, plugins, recorded courses
- A web app, SaaS, mobile app, browser extension, bot or API that people pay for or that earns from ads
- A blog, niche website, newsletter, YouTube channel, podcast or social account that earns from ads, affiliate links or sponsors
- Making, printing or reselling physical goods, online or in person
- Doing work for clients for a fee: freelance, consulting, done-for-you services, repairs, local services
- Earning from something you own: renting property, rooms, equipment, vehicles, parking, vending machines, domains
- A job board, listings site, directory or marketplace that connects buyers and sellers
- Live tutoring, lessons, workshops, coaching or cohort classes
Matching ideas
About the data70 ideas, page 1 of 2
- Software and appsA website for visualizing road trips, earning sales through organic traffic with peaks around holidays.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsCo-wrote a Spring Boot and AWS e-book with a companion online course, sharing the income among authors.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA minimalist Android launcher distributed free, with a paid pro version.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA GIF meme site that earns from one-off sales of watermark removal.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA paid Mac App Store app that grew out of a personal need for a Safari extension that refreshes tabs automatically.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Software and appsWrote a Mac app years ago that still makes steady daily sales through the app store without marketing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2020
- Digital productsBuilt a level design package and sells it on the Unity Asset Store, relying on organic discovery.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Software and appsAn independent wedding registry site for a local market. Couples pay a one-time activation fee, and Google ads bring in traffic.$1k to $10kHands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Software and appsBuilt a desktop app for managing video libraries and sells licenses. Donates the proceeds to charity.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsSells a boutique Jekyll theme aimed at software people and academics, with a free base version and a paid version.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsA bot that posts a space-weather graph and built a following, which led to selling related t-shirts.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsWrites and sells books about programming, currently covering Angular and related tools, with little promotion.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsA site selling themes for static site generators that has started making sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Software and appsA few games the owner published that continue to sell a little each year without any input.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsLists virtual machines on major cloud marketplaces that come set up for Ethereum development, with video tutorials. Revenue comes from VM sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Software and appsPublishes several Android apps on Google Play. One got an editor's pick, which boosted sales for a while.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Physical productsTurned public patent drawings into wall art images, cleaned up by a hired assistant and batch processed. An online store sends orders to a print and fulfillment service automatically.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilt a web-based synth and drum machine that is free as a demo. Sells a downloadable desktop version without the restrictions.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsSells a cross-platform desktop task manager with a Kanban-style board, through a trial-based license on Gumroad and the Mac App Store.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA desktop tool that shrinks images without visible quality loss. Offered as a free version with paid upgrades, plus plugins for design software.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA lossless screen recording app for macOS sold through the Mac App Store and its own site. Adds features like animated GIF export to keep sales coming in.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Directories and marketplacesSold a few domains at a profit and then launched a site selling high-quality startup names to fund other ventures.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsDevelops watch faces for Android Wear and sells them as paid apps on the Play Store.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsPublishes native apps and games along with HTML5 games, earning from app store sales. Income has declined as the stores have changed.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilt online prep resources for UK medical school entrance exams. Students pay for access, mostly in the months before the exams.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA service where customers text a photo and a physical postcard is mailed. Built with a web framework and an SMS API, and paid per postcard.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsSells a watermarking tool, and also runs a multi-week video productivity course that is paid for each time a new class fills.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilds small single-purpose mobile apps such as calculators and a flashlight. Some are sold for a fee and others earn from in-app ads.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsSells a game for iPad through the App Store, which sold with almost no ongoing effort until app updates were needed for new platform requirements.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Digital productsTeaches people the Swift language with a self-written book and an online coding exercise platform. Money comes from selling these products.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Digital productsDeveloped payment gateway and product feed extensions for online store platforms and sells them.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Digital productsWrote an add-on for the ExpressionEngine CMS and sells it through a marketplace.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilds and sells many iPhone apps, with updates and freelance on the side.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a minimalist wine catalog app for iPhone, sold as a paid app.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Digital productsDeveloped an add-on for a popular video game that earns small, usage-driven income.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsSells a Mac utility for cleaning disk space on the Mac App Store, with little marketing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsAn iPhone app that converts tracker activity to diet program points and offers calorie tracking, sold through the App Store.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsPorted an older game to iPad, free to download with one in-app purchase unlocking the full version.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a glockenspiel app for a friend's daughter, released a free version and a paid version with extra features.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Digital productsSells WordPress themes for specific niches, with a small ad budget and a little customer support.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a website where people pay in Bitcoin per character to post a message.$100 to $1kHands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsSells personalized kids books through an iPad app and is splitting it into individual book apps.OnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt an iPad piano app that stays in music charts and sells without marketing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsSells software for creating bingo cards, needing little support.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Digital productsA website selling cupcake wrapper designs, with new designs needed to keep sales up.OnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsHas a simple app in the Mac App Store that sells with no ongoing support.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Directories and marketplacesA marketplace for themes for a blogging platform.OnlineHacker News, 2014
- Digital productsDesigned a child theme for the Genesis WordPress framework in a few days, and it keeps earning monthly sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014